In Part 1 of this analysis [Link], India's ascension to the Number One spot, and the questions therein were addressed. In brief, it was argued that being the Number One ranked team did not mean you had to be a world-beater and capable of winning everywhere - it simply meant that you had to be better than the competition.

Since the ICC's rankings give an equal weight to a Test and series win whether it's at home or away, and since in the absence of a viable FTP this could create somewhat of a skew in results, a rudimentary points system to take care of this variable was proposed, wherein an 'away win' would be worth 4 points and a 'home win' 3 points, since over the past 2-year and 3-year periods, teams have won roughly four matches at home for every 3 matches away.

Part 2 will elaborate on this, starting with the basic points for home and away wins.

Following the same principle for draws as wins, an 'away draw' gets 2 points and a 'home draw' gets 1.5 points.

I have decided to analyze the data starting from January 1 2008. This date was not picked arbitrarily. On January 2, India and Australia played the infamous Sydney Test, and in many ways, the fall-out of that and the subsequent victory at Perth started the Indian team on its uninterrupted rise in the world rankings.

Nine countries who have played Tests since 2008 (Zimbabwe, of course, being absent), and their respective home and away records since then till the conclusion of the first India-South Africa Test are:

Home

Away

Played

Won

Lost

Draw

Played

Won

Lost

Draw

Australia

17

10

4

3

21

8

8

5

Bangladesh

10

0

9

1

9

2

7

0

England

20

12

4

4

19

6

5

8

India

19

10

2

7

15

6

5

4

New Zealand

16

5

6

5

12

1

7

4

Pakistan

2

0

0

2

17

3

10

4

South Africa

12

7

3

2

19

10

4

5

Sri Lanka

14

7

2

5

9

3

3

3

West Indies

15

2

7

6

12

0

6

6

As can be seen from the table, the countries involved have played widely differing amounts of cricket both home and away, and to correct for this, the averages of both home and away points can be taken (total home/away points divided by total home/away matches). Adding both averages will give a clearer picture of team supremacy.

Home Points

Home Average

Away Points

Away Average

Total Points

South Africa

24.0

2.00

50

2.63

4.63

India

40.5

2.13

32

2.13

4.26

England

42.0

2.10

40

2.11

4.21

Sri Lanka

28.5

2.04

18

2.00

4.04

Australia

34.5

2.03

42

2.00

4.03

Pakistan

3.0

1.50

20

1.18

2.68

New Zealand

22.5

1.41

12

1.00

2.41

West Indies

15.0

1.00

12

1.00

2.00

Bangladesh

1.5

0.15

8

0.89

1.04

The table above makes for interesting reading. Objective criteria, rudimentarily applied, seems to suggest that South Africa has been better than India since January 1 2008. The rudimentary analysis though, can be made more sophisticated by factoring the results in Test series also rather than restricting the analysis to only individual match results.

(Note: The ICC currently employs a more complex method that takes into account the ranks of each team taking part in a series, which is a desirable thing to do. However, for the moment, that is beyond the scope of this analysis. This will therefore be restricted to results of individual Test matches and Test series.)

Thus in the same way that Test match results were assigned points, Test series results are assigned the following: 9 points for an 'away series win', 6 points for a 'home series win', 4 points for an 'away series draw' and 3 points for a 'home series draw'.

The performance of the nine active Test playing nations since January 1 2008 in completed home and away series has been:

Home

Away

Played

Won

Lost

Draw

Played

Won

Lost

Draw

Australia

4

3

1

0

7

3

3

1

Bangladesh

5

0

5

0

5

1

4

0

England

6

5

1

0

5

2

2

1

India

7

5

0

2

4

2

1

1

New Zealand

6

2

3

1

6

1

4

1

Pakistan

1

0

0

1

6

0

3

3

South Africa

3

1

1

1

7

4

0

3

Sri Lanka

5

3

0

2

4

1

1

2

West Indies

5

1

3

1

4

0

2

2

As before, the points are averaged for 'Home' and 'Away' results and the resulting averages are added. The table then becomes:

Home Points

Home Average

Away Points

Away Average

Total Points

India

36

5.14

22

5.50

10.64

South Africa

9

3.00

48

6.86

9.86

England

30

5.00

22

4.40

9.40

Sri Lanka

24

4.80

17

4.25

9.05

Australia

18

4.50

31

4.43

8.93

Pakistan

3

3.00

12

2.00

5.00

New Zealand

15

2.50

13

2.17

4.67

West Indies

9

1.80

8

2.00

3.80

Bangladesh

0

0.00

9

1.80

1.80

Taken in conjunction with the table that gave points for individual Test results, this one makes even more interesting reading. India and South Africa have switched spots at the top, but apart from that, there is no change in rankings. What does this mean?

It suggests that while South Africa have been more consistent across matches, India have been more so across series. Thus while South Africa might have won series more handsomely, India have ensured that they haven't lost. In the period under consideration both sides have lost one series each, but India have played 11 to South Africa's 10.

Whether it is more desirable to do well across series or across matches is a debate that has too many overlapping arguments and I have therefore decided to give them both equal weightage. Thus the points across matches and series can simply be added. This would give the final table and it reads thus:

Series Points

Individual Matches Points

Total Points

India

10.64

4.26

14.91

South Africa

9.86

4.63

14.49

England

9.40

4.21

13.61

Sri Lanka

9.05

4.04

13.09

Australia

8.93

4.03

12.96

Pakistan

5.00

2.68

7.68

New Zealand

4.67

2.41

7.07

West Indies

3.80

2.00

5.80

Bangladesh

1.80

1.04

2.84

India does come out on top in the table but only just. South Africa is so close behind that the results of the current series underway could very well determine which team will stay on top. Since the series table can only take completed series into account, the Ashes and the top-of-the-table clash have necessarily been excluded.

For all those who doubted India's status as a legitimate Number One team though, this should answer some questions. The criteria selected have been objective, and have been uniform for all playing teams. In addition, 'away wins' have been given more weightage than 'home wins'. If in spite of this, India still sits on top of the rankings - by however small a margin - it is enough indication that they deserve to be there.